An American Beer Style In London

The most popular beers in the United Kingdom are starting to look, smell and taste a lot like the most popular beers in the U.S.

- Zach Fowle

IN 1994, THE BRITISH GUILD OF BEER WRITERS assembled in London for a conference on a topic of great importance: India pale ale. Garrett Oliver, then the brewmaster at Manhattan Brewing Co. in New York City, presented the gathered luminaries with his grapefruit-forward, heavily Cascade-hopped Rough Draught IPA, and while Britain’s beer writers were complimentary, the brewers in attendance weren’t having it. “‘The beer is very amusing,’” Oliver recalls them saying, “‘but you’ll never get anyone to actually drink it.’” They considered the brash, citrusy flavors of American hops entirely off-putting.

But 10 years later, Oliver says, a peculiar thing happened. During the final round of judging at the annual Great British Beer Festival, whiffs of orange peel and grass began to rise from one of the glasses. The brew inside, Kelham Island Brewery’s Pale Rider, went on to become 2004’s Champion Beer of Britain, and did so with North American-grown hops and a flavor Oliver describes as “rather American.” The pendulum had swung.

Today, more U.K brewers are taking a page from our book, harnessing ingredients, techniques, sensibilities and even business models that also seem, well, rather American.